Arevaci

thumb|right|350px|Main language areas in Iberia c. 300 BC The Arevaci or Aravaci (Arevakos, Arvatkos or Areukas in the Greek sources), were a Celtic people who settled in the central Meseta of northern Hispania and dominated most of Celtiberia from the 4th to late 2nd centuries BC. The Vaccaei were their allies.

==Origins== The Arevaci were of Celtic origin and part of the group of peoples known as the Celtiberians. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that the ancestors of the Celtiberian groups were installed in the Meseta area of the Iberian Peninsula from at least 1000 BC and probably much earlier. Some think their ancestors were early ‘Q-Celtic’ speakers from Gaul who migrated to the peninsula around the mid-6th century BC, arriving at about the same time as the powerful Vaccaei people of the western Meseta. This led some modern historians to state that the Arevaci were actually an offshoot of the latter, thus their tribal name which means ‘Are-Vaccei’ or 'eastern' Vacceians. However, an alternative etymology is given by the Roman geographer Pliny the elder who calls them Celtiberi Arevaci, adding that they borrowed their name from the river Areva (Araviana) and thus their designation could be translated as "those who dwell at the Areva" or "on the Areva".